Orlando’s Dilemma: Webber or Bradley? : Pro basketball: Magic is sitting pretty with No. 1 pick in Wednesday’s draft. Williams says he hasn’t decided.

Chris Webber appears to be a perfect fit for the Orlando Magic and Shaquille O’Neal--the best young power forward prospect paired with the best young center in the NBA.

General Manager Pat Williams is saying “timeout” on that idea, however.

Williams may indeed decide to take the 20-year-old Webber, but he also is intrigued by the prospect of a front line with the 7-foot, 300-pound O’Neal at center and 7-6, 250-pound Shawn Bradley at forward.

“Bradley is just enormous,” Williams said. “Could he play with Shaq? If he could, they could revolutionize basketball. I don’t see moving Shaq away from the basket. He’s a center, an inside guy. Bradley is more of a finesse player.”

Orlando earned the No. 1 pick in Wednesday night’s draft at the Palace at Auburn Hills when the Magic’s Ping-Pong ball was drawn out of a lottery bin with 65 other balls.

Leaving doubt about intentions are a common strategy for teams with high draft picks, who like nothing better than making a trade and still getting a player they really want with a lower pick.

“We’ve done our homework and we still have a few more days to think about it,” Williams said. “We interviewed Webber, Bradley, Jamal Mashburn and Anfernee Hardaway, but right now we’re focusing on Webber, Bradley and Mashburn.

“Don’t be shocked on Wednesday night if we select Jamal Webber Bradley,” Williams said. “We’ll let David Stern figure it out from there.”

Webber, who led Michigan to two NCAA finals, is a known quality, but Bradley, after a promising freshman year at Brigham Young, spent two years on a Mormon mission in Australia before returning home. Bradley has declined to work out with any teams, admitting he is out of shape, but his size and athletic ability make him an outstanding prospect.

Along with Webber and Bradley, Kentucky’s Mashburn, Memphis State’s Hardaway and Rodney Rodgers of Wake Forest could be the first five players picked, making an early sweep of players who left college early. J.R. Rider of Nevada Las Vegas and Calbert Cheaney of Indiana are two seniors who could break up the string of early entry draftees.

Picking second after Orlando is Philadelphia, which already has a 7-6 center in Manute Bol. But the 76ers wouldn’t hesitate to replace him with Bradley if they get a chance.

Next in line is Golden State, which has been blessed with talent for years without a satisfactory man in the middle.

Don Nelson, the Warriors’ general manager and coach, been trying feverishly to work out a deal to get Bradley. But Nelson said the only thing the Warriors have to show for their efforts to trade up are “bags under our eyes and a lot of phone bills. As you know with human beings, they wait until the last minute to do it.”

Nelson, in a bit of wishful thinking, said “a lot of people feel a better fit for Orlando would be Mashburn. You don’t have to be a genius to see his skills blend in with Shaq.”

Nelson said a worst-case scenario, in which Golden State makes no trade and Webber and Bradley are taken, is not a bad deal for the Warriors, a strong team until injuries knocked them into the lottery this year.

“The pick is an asset,” Nelson said. “At this point in time, there seems to be more interest in the pick. And I think it’s fair to say there are people on our roster we would not trade.”

After Golden State drafts third, the four worst teams in the NBA last season pick fourth through seventh. Dallas, Minnesota, Washington and Sacramento were unlucky in the lottery when three better teams leaped over them, but they at least get a chance at one of the seven players considered the top echelon.

Orlando won 41 games, Philadelphia 26, Golden State 34, Dallas 11, Minnesota 19, Washington 22 and Sacramento 25.

Milwaukee, with 28 wins in 1992-93, selects eighth, followed by Denver (36 victories), before Detroit completes the so-called “lottery picks” with the 10th and 11th.

The Pistons, who have their own selection plus Miami’s because of the trade of John Salley to the Heat, also are in a trading mood. They have tried to unload troubled rebounding ace Dennis Rodman.

The draft order for playoff teams after Detroit’s two picks is the Lakers and Clippers, Indiana, Atlanta, New Jersey, Charlotte, Utah, Boston, Charlotte, Portland, Cleveland, Seattle, Houston, Chicago, Orlando and Phoenix.

Charlotte got an extra pick in a trade with San Antonio involving J.R. Reid, and Orlando got its additional first-round selection in a deal that saw Mark Jackson go to the Clippers and Charles Smith and Doc Rivers go to the Knicks.

Among the top centers besides Bradley available in the first round are Acie Earl of Iowa, Ervin Johnson of New Orleans, Ed Stokes of Arizona and Seton Hall’s Luther Wright.

The top forwards besides Webber, Mashburn, Rogers and Cheaney are Arizona’s Chris Mills, Vin Baker of Hartford and George Lynch of North Carolina.

After Rider and Hardaway, the leading guards are Allan Houston of Tennessee, Bobby Hurley of Duke, Terry Dehere of Seton Hall, Jackson State’s Lindsey Hunter, James Robinson of Alabama and Adonis Jordan of Kansas.

Two players probably headed for no better than the second round undoubtedly would make headline writers happy.

Tony Dunkin, a 6-7 forward, averaged 23.7 points last season for Coastal Carolina, and Spencer Dunkley, a 6-11 center, averaged 19.2 points and 12.2 rebounds for Delaware.